The culture gap and its needed closures

The development of an enormous culture gap, in which no individuals of advanced societies possess even a billionth of the non‐genetic information possessed by their entire society, has threatened a global collapse of civilisation. Critical parts of that gap must be rapidly bridged so that problems such as climate disruption, toxification of the Earth, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the decay of the epidemiological environment can be satisfactorily attacked. The essential need is to alter human behaviour to put society on a route to sustainability; one cheering development is a growing interest in the Millennium Assessment of Human Behaviour (MAHB), whose goal is to do just that.     

Glazed spaces in Nordic climates

A semi-climatized zone in the shape of a glazed space is heated to some degree by solar radiation and to some degree by excess heat or heat loss from the main and fully insulated part of the building. Such a space will not offer full thermal comfort for permanent occupancy during the winter season, but it is useful for secondary functions such as circulation, storage, physical activities, etc. During the summer season glazed spaces will also be very attractive for ordinary occupancy.

A condition for energy conservation is that these spaces are not heated directly but utilize heat loss and possibly excess heat from the adjoining buildings. If they are properly positioned and constructed, they will also function as solar collectors.

The energy reduction potential will vary greatly with the relative size of the spaces, with the system installed, and with possibilities for long term storage. If the glazed space covers relatively large parts of the adjoining buildings, the reduced heat loss from these may be considerable. If in addition a certain minimum temperature can be kept in the glazed space, the need for heating in the adjoining buildings may be minimal.

Abroad such spaces are often used consciously as architectural elements due to their special spatial character. In countries like Norway they may in addition serve several needs resulting from the special climatic conditions.

SINTEF has developed energy conservation systems based on this concept and has tested them in experimental buildings. One example is the three solar energy houses in the Heimdal low energy dwellings project which totals 14 houses. Another example is a day care centre now under development for the local student union.     

Influence of the amorphous phase molecular mobility on impact and tensile properties of polyamide 6,6

In this work, the relationship between molecular mobility of polyamide 6,6 amorphous phase and mechanical properties is studied. PA66 formulations having different glass transition temperatures (T_g) obtained by additivation, chemical modification of the polyamide chains, and/or water conditioning at different hygrometry levels, are considered. The main emphasis is put on the impact strength, as measured by instrumented Charpy impact tests over a broad temperature range. It is observed that the brittle‐tough transition temperature T_B/T is closely correlated with the T_g of the samples rather than to the β secondary relaxation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43457.     

Additive Manufacturing of Ceramics Enabled by Flash Pyrolysis of Polymer Precursors with Nanoscale Layers

We show that a polymer‐based route to ceramics can be implemented into additive manufacturing by reducing the time for pyrolysis to about a second, which we call flash pyrolysis. Repetitive deposition of nanometer scale coatings of the ceramic, in this way, is employed to create defect‐free infiltrations of carbon fiber composites. The mechanical strength of the fibers is retained in the composite. Excellent wetting properties of the polymer precursor permits three‐dimensional, conformal coating through the three stages of infiltration: nanoscale coating of the single fibers, filling of interstitial spaces between the fibers, and a buildup of the coating over the entire composite. The flash pyrolysis method will enable a new genre of polymer‐derived ceramics made into net shape by this unusual method of additive manufacturing.     

Phylogenetic-Derived Insights into the Evolution of Sialylation in Eukaryotes: Comprehensive Analysis of Vertebrate β-Galactoside α2,3/6-Sialyltransferases (ST3Gal and ST6Gal)

Cell surface of eukaryotic cells is covered with a wide variety of sialylated molecules involved in diverse biological processes and taking part in cell–cell interactions. Although the physiological relevance of these sialylated glycoconjugates in vertebrates begins to be deciphered, the origin and evolution of the genetic machinery implicated in their biosynthetic pathway are poorly understood. Among the variety of actors involved in the sialylation machinery, sialyltransferases are key enzymes for the biosynthesis of sialylated molecules. This review focus on β-galactoside α2,3/6-sialyltransferases belonging to the ST3Gal and ST6Gal families. We propose here an outline of the evolutionary history of these two major ST families. Comparative genomics, molecular phylogeny and structural bioinformatics provided insights into the functional innovations in sialic acid metabolism and enabled to explore how ST-gene function evolved in vertebrates.     

Design of Phosphonated Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids Grafted on γ-Alumina: Potential Model for Hybrid Membranes

Imidazolium bromide-based ionic liquids bearing phosphonyl groups on the cationic part were synthesized and grafted on γ-alumina (γ-Al₂O₃) powders. These powders were prepared as companion samples of conventional mesoporous γ-alumina membranes, in order to favor a possible transfer of the results to supported membrane materials, which could be used for CO₂ separation applications. Effective grafting was demonstrated using energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX), N₂ adsorption measurements, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and special attention was paid to ³¹P and ¹³C solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR).     

Polyamide hydrolysis accelerated by small weak organic acids

It is well known that acidity, pH, of a solution accelerates the hydrolysis of soluble amides. Here we describe the unexpected result that weak small organic acids at low concentrations hydrolyze a polyamide at rates approximately twice that of a water HCl solution of the same pH. The effect of three small organic acids in dilute solutions, acetic, propanoic, and butanoic was studied. It is observed that the effect on the hydrolysis rate increases as the organic acid gets weaker. Butanoic, the weakest acid, has the strongest effect on increasing the hydrolysis rate. Measurements on the concentration of these acids in the polyamide reveal that there is a selective desire for these weak organic acids to diffuse into the polyamide. The concentration of these acids in the polyamide is found to be several multiples of the concentration in the water environment. And the acid concentration is highest for butanoic. The hydrolysis rate is shown to be governed by solubility, not pH of the water environment. The longer hydrocarbon tail on the carboxylic group increases its compatibility with the polyamide's monomer structure. Results are reported on the hydrolysis of polyamide-11 polymerized from aminoundecanoic acid, both neat and a commercial plasticized composition, placed in water at 100 °C and 120 °C under anaerobic conditions in high pressure glass tubes.     

Easy,Green and Safe Carbonylation Reactions through Zeolite‐Catalyzed Carbon Monoxide Production from Formic Acid

Zeolites with the right shape and acid site density and strength, such as certain ZSM‐5 forms, were able to cleanly decompose formic acid to carbon monoxide (CO), and the latter could be directly used in palladium‐catalyzed carbonylation reactions. A simple two‐reactor system was designed to produce CO conveniently and then further react this gas in a safe way. The two‐reactor system is particularly cheap, easy to set up and use. In addition, the carbonylation conditions without pressure allowed for very efficient CO incorporation, with only 1% of palladium(II) chloride (PdCl₂) and Xantphos.